With one play dealing with the painful fallout of sexual abuse within the family and another bringing together ethnic dances from different cultures, nobody can accuse these teenagers of pulling punches.

“For young people, who are sometimes cut off from the issues surrounding them, drama can go beyond the surface and helps express things that are otherwise difficult,” says Roderick Vassallo, artistic director of Ħolqa, a European Theatre Festival for post-secondary students.

Now in its second edition, Ħolqa, which opens tomorrow and runs until Friday, is co-produced by the G.F. Abela Junior College and local theatre troupe 18:45, and brings together students aged 16 to 19 from seven European countries.

This year’s edition of Ħolqa has the added distinction of playing host to the seventh edition of the La Cadenelle European Theatre Festival, which is organised biannually in Marseille.

Participants will take part in a week of performances and collaborative workshops, and will also receive feedback at the end of the festival from three judges, all well-established on the local arts scene.

They are actors Polly March and Charles Sammut and writer Clare Azzopardi.

“The festival really is a unique platform, and the only one of its kind in Malta. It gives students the opportunity to meet their peers from other countries on equal footing, with work they’ve produced themselves, coming together and connecting deeply through drama,” Mr Vassallo says.

For this year’s festival, students have come from Germany, France, Iceland, Spain, Ireland and Italy, the latter presenting a piece inspired by the multicultural make-up of their school in Verona.

“The students chose ethnic dances representing the mixture of cultures in their school and how these can be brought together in an artistic expression on stage.

“The performance has no words, but the rhythms and coordination are a witness of what social inclusion can achieve,” says Mr Vassallo.

In the German performance, Sie waren mehr wert (‘They aren’t worth more’), students ask painful questions about how children can be abused for years without anyone noticing.

“The play also goes further and explores what happens when someone finally opens up and starts talking about the abuse,” says Mr Vassallo.

The Maltese students, who last year presented a poetic piece on migration, will this year be working on a play about teenage relationships, devised by the students themselves under the direction of actor Alan Fenech.

“Most of our students started taking drama seriously after they participated for the first time.

“For those who let the festival and the connections they made touch them deeply, it can really change lives.”